house of David have it more detail. I think that part is better

King David_360P

I was expecting a very powerful film but it is very insignificant. The characters are not well introduced and are not credible. It would have been easy to follow the story from the bible instead they choose to change the story and by doing that they deluded all the punches. As an example the battle between David and Goliath: in the scripture it is showed as a powerful miracle that put in evidence the authority of God, David, acting under the hand of God, hits in one shot Goliath who himself defiles the God of Israël, in the film, it is not Goliath that defiles the God of Israël and David plays hide and seeks with Goliath. There is no link between the different parts of the history, no link between characters, very poor.

It's the life of David (Richard Gere) who would be the King of the Isrealites. Prophet Samuel chooses the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem. He dies and leaves a message to King Saul (Edward Woodward) that God has forsaken him but not his people. In the battle against the Philistines, David strikes down the giant Goliath. David befriends Saul's son Jonathan who saves him from Saul's plots against him. After Jonathan and Saul are killed in battle with the Philistines, David is crowned king. The Godly rule is brought down by David's affair with the married Bathsheba (Alice Krige). Everything is fine until Richard Gere shows up. It's a bit slow sometimes but Woodward is a solid British actor. The scale is big enough when it's required. Goliath is great. It's all good but there is something too modern about Gere's beautiful hair. His mannerisms and his voice is too modern, too American and too different from everybody else. He simply looks out of place. Otherwise, this could have worked.

Even Woodard's fascinating characterization of Saul cannot save this drab biblical epic about the King of Israel who took on Goliath. Gere is way out here as David, but he makes an effort. Beresford tries too hard to copy Lean or Kubrick in the battle scenes. It's almost too obvious.

"King David" is a entertaining Biblical Epic that stays pretty close to the source story of how a young Hebrew named David ascends to the throne as Israel's second King. I remember reading Rex Reed's review of the film and how much disdain he had for Richard Gere's performance. He said he looked like he was checking behind the camera to make sure no one stole his motorcycle. At the time I thought the raking over the coals was amusing and I had decided not to see the film. I'm sure many other readers of Rex Reed made the same decision as well. Well, on hindsight, Rex Reed and many other " movie reviewers" have done this movie a great disservice. I just saw this "King David" for the first time this year and I thought it was definitely one of the better Biblical Epics to come out of the Hollywood film industry. Fortunately with VHS and DVD, "King David" the movie, has the opportunity to find the audience it should have had twenty five years ago. This movie will find it's audience and as for the words of Rex Reed...

I was really impressed by how well this story followed the bible exactly. How Solomon annointed David to be King while Saul was still on the throne, and how David played the Lyre for Saul, including the 23rd Psalm. The story was slow, but impressive. I thought the movie was well acted, for the type of story it was. I could actually imagine that the actors protraying the persons of the bible were the actual people. That is something!

Who was the audience for this film?! This is one case where I honestly wonder if the people associated with this film were either mentally imbalanced or using drugs! There is no other explanation for why you would make a Bible story come alive and infuse it with nudity! Think about it--die-hard Christians certainly won't come to the movie or would be offended by the nudity and Atheists are hardly the type people who frequent Bible-themed movies. And, Agnostics probably just won't care one way or the other. So, apart from the actors' friends and family, just who is the intended audience? Now I am NOT saying the story of David should have been sanitized--after all, murder and adultery are part of the Biblical account. You really can't talk about David without Bathsheba in this film,...but being that explicit?! The people making this film must have been out of their minds. The public apparently thought so, as this was one of Richard Gere's few box office flops.

I admit I'm biased when it comes to Bible stories, especially really great Bible stories. So I was pretty skeptical when I picked up this movie, but I'd been wanting to see a good film version of the Life of David ever since I taught a class on I&II Samuel. I should have trusted my instincts and passed on this movie. The fact that they changed some details of the Biblical story isn't nearly as bad as the fact that they changed the entire theme of the story of David. In the movie, David has this obsession with wanting to see God face to face, and this plays itself in everything he does. He also has this theology based on emotions. Now this is a popular idea today (God deal with man through the heart and emotions only), but it just doesn't fit with David's story which is one of submission and trust. One of the problems with making a movie like this is that the story is much much to big to be told in a two hour film. I'd like to see a Lord of the Rings style telling of David's life. The narrator is horrible, and he sounds like he's reading scripture when he's not. The Goliath fight is aweful. Goliath doesn't even speak, but has his shield bearer (who doesn't bother bearing a shield) taunt the Israelites and David. David chunks about 6 rocks before he is actually able to kill the giant. Then he's really sad about it. He says to God in a weepy kind of voice "So be it" before cutting off Goliath's head. COME ON!!!! In the real story he says "You come against me with a sword and a spear and a javlain, but I come against you in the name of the Lord God of Hosts. This day I will cut off your head and give your flesh to the birds of the air nad the beasts of the field that the world may know that there is a God in Israel." I mean, who cuts that line out??? Another lousy thing was when David's first son by Bathsheba dies and the movie deals with it by a little narration scene. There's no fasting, no laying on his face for days, even the line "I will go to him, but he will not return to me" is cut and used at Absolem's death instead. All we get is the stupid narrator saying "David's first son died, but God gave him another one named Soloman." STUPID STUPID STUPID!!! More lousy stuff: The young boy who plays David as a kid looks like a fairy, and judging by the Bathsheba scene, baby oil was the most common substance for cleaning oneself in Ancient Israel. The acting is mediocre with the exception of the guy who plays Samuel who is wonderful, and the guy who plays Absolem who is terrible. The set and costumes are ridiculous for the most part (especially the wigs), but David actually looks like a king some of the time which is a refreshing change from Saul. Finally, I can't imagine what they were thinking when they slapped a PG-13 rating on this movie. There are two extended Nude scenes one of which is a lengthy full frontal shot of Bathsheba rubbing the aforementioned baby oil all over herself. This movie should be rated R, and if someone tackles this story as a film project in the future I hope that they make an accurate R rated version.

This would have to be Richard Gere's worst misfortune. He accepted a role in a biblical epic of what looks like a film which had a very small budget. A film with a nonsensical script of a supposed event in the history of the world. This is a movie which has neither a great deal of artistic merit, nor a lot of historic or religious fact. Watch it if you want to, but you have been warned of its lack of merit. The film tells how King Saul is told by a prophet that he is not being harsh enough with the enemies of Israel, and the prophet demonstrates to the King how Israel should treat the captured enemies by beheading the captured enemy king. Enter David the shepherd, who charms Saul with his musical skills, and - predictably - slays the champion of the Philistines, Goliath. From there, the plot goes downhill, and could only interest people who are dedicated to the bible.